However, I did play a black president in Deep Impact.
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/2012 Getty Images

Taking a page from President Clinton’s guide to being a loyal Obama supporter, today Morgan Freeman dredged up questions about President Obama’s race. In an interview with NPR, Freeman said of Obama, “America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.” Oh,boy.

To be fair, Freeman was asked to comment on the current status of race relations in the United States, and his statements were meant to criticize Donald Trump and his fellowbirthers:

First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America. There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-racepresident.

Freeman went on to attack Obama’s opponents for complaining that he gets nothing done while doing everything in their power to block hispolicies:

“He is being purposely, purposely thwarted by the Republican Party, who started out at the beginning of his tenure by saying, ‘We are going to do whatever is necessary to make sure that he’s only going to serve one term,’ ” he said. “That means they will not cooperate with him on anything. So to say he’s ineffective is a misappropriation of thefacts.”

President Obama’s struggles with his racial identity have been well documented, but he’s made it clear that he considers himself African-American. Still, this is sure to revive questions about Obama’s ethnicity at least temporarily, since no one wants to argue with thatvoice.